6 Streaming Alternatives to Apple Music

Later this month, Apple will finally embrace streaming music with Apple Music, launching first on your iPhone and eventually on Apple TV and even Android.

Apple Music will feature 24-hour live Internet radio, and subscribers can pretty much listen to whatever they want in the catalog for $9.99 per month.

If that all sounds pretty familiar, it's because it's pretty close to the business model used by all the other streaming media services around, many of which are offered on far more platforms than Apple Music will be at launch. Maybe the biggest difference, though, is that Apple says it will have experts (not algorithms) curating playlists based on your initial song selection, plus the ability for unsigned artists to add their work to the service. Its Beats 1 live radio station will also be available to anyone, even if they don't subscribe.

Spotify has ad-free, on-demand streaming if you pay for it and ad-supported, free listening if you don't. It also has Internet radio options, offline playback for certain songs, and now videos. Available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows, Mac, PlayStation, Web. Check out our Spotify tips and tricks.

The perennial PCMag Editors' Choice in this category, Slacker Radio provides some excellent curated Internet radio stations already—exactly the kind of thing Apple Music will provide. Its tagline: "Powered by Humans." It even provides ESPN Radio! The only downside is a more limited library of tunes. Available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Kindle Fire, Xbox, and Web .

Catalog size: 13 million songs

Cost: Free with ads; US$3.99 a month to remove ads and get unlimited skips; US$9.99 a month caches songs for offline playback and allows stations creation around a specific artist.

Internet radio only—you pick a song, the service picks songs to play on the "station" created, based on the artist, genre, and other features. If you pay, you get to skip ads and songs. There's no going back to previous songs, you just have to wait until the one you gave a "thumbs up" comes back. Available for iOS, Windows Phone, Android, Kindle Fire, Nook, Blackberry, Pebble Watch, and Web. Check out PCMag's tips and tricks.

Catalog size: 2 million tracks

Cost: US$4.99 per month or US$54.89 per year for Pandora One, but you don't need it.

Haven't heard of Tidal yet? Think of it as "that service by Jay Z" even though it's originally from Europe. It only got its start recently in the U.S.—just ahead of Apple Music's announcement. Like with Spotify, you can choose a song to listen to as desired. It also have music videos, but there's no ad-supported free listening. Available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Web.

Catalog size: 30 million songs.

Cost: $11.99 a month or $23.99 per month for lossless CD quality audio.

More on-demand streaming + Internet radio. The nice thing Google Play Music does is let you integrate your local tracks into your catalog so you can listen wherever you are, offline. It's from Google, so of course it pairs with YouTube, specifically YouTube Music Key, to show music videos. Available for iOS, Android, and Web.

Say it are-dee-oh, like it's a Star Wars droid. Rdio provides you with a personal radio station (You FM) or pick another song to create a new one. You can stream or download whole songs and albums, for offline listening. The Internet radio stations are free, with ads, while the paid version provides audio as pristine as 320kbps quality. Available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Windows, Web.

Catalog size: 20 million songs

Cost: Free for ad-based listening; $5.99 per month with no ads and unlimited skips, plus 25 song downloads; $11.99 a month for any song on demand, no ads, unlimited skips, unlimited downloads.

About the Author

Eric narrowly averted a career in food service when he began in tech publishing at Ziff-Davis over 20 years ago. He was on the founding staff of Windows Sources, FamilyPC, and Access Internet Magazine (all defunct, and it's not his fault). He's the author of two novels, BETA TEST ("an unusually lighthearted apocalyptic tale"--Publishers' Weekly) and KALI: THE GHOSTING OF SEPULCHER BAY. He works from his home in Ithaca, NY. See Full Bio